Above and beyond my insane Olivia/Peter shipping and my utter adoration of Olivia--I haven't loved any character like this since B'Elanna in Voyager--and the show's sci-fi, but very, very few shows, to me, have ever done so well in portraying a complex parent/child relationship as Fringe.

I'm absolutely sure anyone can name a dozen dramas that do it better, but honestly, I've never been so fascinated and invested in it working out. It might as well be my second ship (platonic!) because the show invests in it. And it's surprising how well they've done it, with the slow growth, the absurdity, the backsliding, the pettiness and stupidity of people who love each other and hurt each other and learn to trust each other again.

I love how they love each other and hurt each other and mess up badly and still try. I love that Walter's as idiotic as any parent, and Peter can be as stupidly petty as any kid, and that doesn't mean they don't love each other and worry about each other and more importantly, they both want a relationship.

Also, I'm a parent--this influences how I see most of Walter's actions. 1.) Hell fucking yes I would cross dimensions for my kid. 2.) Hell fucking yes if he was threatened the world might very well burn. 3.) Hell fucking yes yes yes I would not be sane if he died. I mean, I know this. It would not be unreasonable to invent a device to take me across dimensions and save an Alter!Child. And no, I'm not sure I would be able to let him go.

I'm not excusing Walter's actions in kidnapping Peter--I'm not, and for the record, his original intentions were good and he didn't intend absconding forever with him--but every time I watch it, I remember when Child was hospitalized with RSV when he was a month old and going into shock; it wasn't even dangerous, really, just precautionary. I look at him now, and it's not that I'm uncomfortable admitting this, because it's kind of like breathing, if I had a magic mirror and a doctorate in physics, my original intentions would be for outright absconding, no original good intentions required.

I love this show. I love Peter wary and distrustful and learning to trust and have faith, learning his father and learning himself, too, and everything good and bad about Walter and loving him for those things. It's just so rare that any show doesn't over-melodramaticize--and God knows, this sitch practically demands it--but Peter doesn't. He's angry and hurt and acts like it; and then he thinks when he can past the betrayal and weighs it. Then he puts it together and learns to forgive it.

Peter has an intersection of two traits that make for a deeply fascinating character: he's done so much in his weird, weird life, and he has a parent-like relationship with his father. It gives him that ability to roll with the punches, so that the newest bit of bizarre doesn't phase him for longer than it takes to make a witty comeback, and his awareness of Walter's childlike lack of understanding of consequence has taught him a seemingly endless capacity to forgive. Or maybe it's just that he's been alone so long that the only way to hang onto people is to forgive, and so he does it because he doesn't have any other choice. Either way, his role as the "mom" of the group- the emotional center, the one who forgives, the one who works behind the scenes, the one who may be called upon to sacrifice- is one of the main reasons this show is so fucking good. How many shows take their attractive male lead and cast him in a traditionally male female role? And how many shows take their attractive female lead and cast her in a traditionally male role without trampling all over her female-ness?

That ramble got a little out of hand, I think, when mostly I meant to say: Yes! All that! Fringe is awesome!

Olivia breaks my heart a little, the way her life was taken from her by her alternate, the way she feels it so deeply - the scene at the washing machine was devastating! And the way she and Peter are gradually, slowly feeling out the path to trust again, both having been burned in such different ways! I love the other characters as well, and I adore the ways the actors have differentiated the AU versions of their characters so that we can see that it's the same person with different development...

Also, I'm a parent--this influences how I see most of Walter's actions. 1.) Hell fucking yes I would cross dimensions for my kid. 2.) Hell fucking yes if he was threatened the world might very well burn. 3.) Hell fucking yes yes yes I would not be sane if he died. I mean, I know this. It would not be unreasonable to invent a device to take me across dimensions and save an Alter!Child. And no, I'm not sure I would be able to let him go. *lightbulb moment* OMG, that's why I fell so hard for that storyline!! Oh, Fringe!

YES. THIS. What I love about this show is how human the characters are, how they're frail and indomitable at once, how they can be hurt and hurt and still go on living, how they can love each other and hate each other at the same time. They're so multidimensional.

Quotes

If you don't send me feedback, I will sob uncontrollably for hours on end, until finally, in a fit of depression, I slash my wrists and bleed out on the bathroom floor. My death will be on your heads. Murderers.--unknown, BTS list

That's why he goes bad, you know -- all the good people hit him on the head or try to shoot him and constantly mistrust him, while there's this vast cohort of minions saying, We wouldn't hurt you, Lex, and we'll give you power and greatness and oh so much sex...

Wow. That was scary. Lex is like Jesus in the desert.--pricklyelf on why Lex goes bad

Obi-Wan has a sort of desperate, pathetic patience in this movie. You can just see it in his eyes: "My padawan is a psychopath, and no one will believe me; I'm barely keeping him under control and expect to wake up any night now to find him standing over my bed with a knife!"--Teague reviewing "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones"

Beth: god, why do i have so many beads?Jenn: Because you are an addict.Jenn: There are twelve step programs for this.Beth: i dunno they'd work, might have to go straight for the electroshock.Jenn: I'm not sure that helps with bead addiction.Beth: i was thinking more to demagnitize my credit card.--AIM, 12/24/2003

I could rape a goat and it will DIE PRETTIER than they write.--AIM, anonymous, 2/17/2004

In medical billing there is a diagnosis code for someone who commits suicide by sea anenemoe.--AIM, silverkyst, 3/25/2004

Anonymous: sorry. i just wanted to tell you how much i liked you. i'd like to take this to a higher level if you're willingEleveninches: By higher level I hope you mean email.--LJ, 4/2/2004

silverkyst: I need to not be taking molecular genetics.silverkyst: though, as a sidenote, I did learn how to eviscerate a fruit fly larvae by pulling it's mouth out by it's mouthparts today.silverkyst: I'm just nowhere near competent in the subject material to be taking it.Jenn: I'd like to thank you for that image.--AIM, 1/25/2005

You know, if obi-wan had just disciplined the boy *properly* we wouldn't be having these problems. Can't you just see yoda? "Take him in hand, you must. The true Force, you must show him."--LJ, Issaro, on spanking Anakin in his formative years, 3/15/2005

Aside from the fact that one person should never go near another with a penis, a bottle of body wash, and a hopeful expression...--LJ, Summerfling, on shower sex, 7/22/2005

It's weird, after you get used to the affection you get from a rabbit, it's like any other BDSM relationship. Only without the sex and hot chicks in leather corsets wielding floggers. You'll grow to like it.--LJ, revelininsanity, on my relationship with my rabbit, 2/7/2006

Smudged upon the near horizon, lapine shadows in the mist. Like a doomsday vision from Watership Down, the bunny intervention approaches.--LJ, cpt_untouchable, on my addition of The Fourth Bunny, 4/13/2006

Rule 3. Chemistry is kind of like bondage. Some people like it, some people like reading about or watching other people doing it, and a large number of people's reaction to actually doing the serious stuff is to recoil in horror.--LJ, deadlychameleon, on class, 9/1/2007

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Fan Fiction is John Cusack standing outside your house with a boombox.-- Tweeted by JRDSkinner